the human bazaars are only purchased by wealthy
and powerful Moslems; and, when purchased, are destined to form part of
the female aristocracy of Cairo. These fetch from one, two, three, or
even five hundred pounds, and being so much more valuable than the
Africans, are much more carefully tended. Some were smoking; some
chatting merrily together; some sitting in dreamy languor. All their
attitudes were very graceful.

They were for the most part exquisitely fair; but I was disappointed in
their beauty. The sunny hair and heaven-blue eyes, that in England
produce such an angel-like and intellectual effect, seemed to me here
mere flax and beads; and I left them to the "turbaned Turk" without a
sigh.

_V.--The Harem_

Difficult a study as woman presents in all countries, that difficulty
deepens almost into impossibility in a land where even to look upon her
is a matter of danger or of death. The seclusion of the hareem is
preserved in the very streets by means of an impenetrable veil; the
well-bred Egyptian averts his eyes as she passes by; she is ever to
remain an object of mystery; and the most intimate acquaintance never
inquires after the wife of his friend, or affects to know of her
existence.

An English lady, visiting an Odalisque, inquired what pleasure her
profusion of rich ornaments could afford, as no person except her
husband was ever to behold them. "And for whom do _you_ adorn yourself?
Is it for other men?" replied the fair barbarian.

I have conversed with several European ladies who had visited hareems,
and they have all confessed their inability to convince the Eastern
wives of the unhappiness or hardship of their state. It is true that the
inmate of the hareem knows nothing of the wild liberty (as it seems to
her) that the European woman enjoys. She has never witnessed the
domestic happiness that crowns a fashionable life, or the peace of mind
and purity of heart that reward the labours of a London season. And what
can _she_ know of the disinterested affection and changeless constancy
of ball-room belles, in the land where woman is all free?

Let them laugh on in their happy ignorance of a better lot, while round
them is gathered all that their lord can command of luxury and
pleasantness. His wealth is hoarded for them alone; he permits himself
no ostentation, except the respectable one of arms and horses; and the
time is weary that he passes apart from his home and hareem. The
sternest tyran